Chapter 326
Chapter 326
Chasing the Wind held Li Shiyin in his mouth, rushed into the darkness, and ran desperately toward Wuyi City. As he ran, he kept looking back to see if the three Yuan Ying stage seniors had given chase.
After running for a good while, seeing that no one was chasing after him, he finally relaxed.
Although Chasing the Wind was very fierce, he was still no match for three Yuan Ying stage opponents... Yes, he ran because he was outnumbered, not because they were in the Yuan Ying stage. That's right.
"Chasing the Wind, why did you come?" Li Shiyin spoke up and asked him.
"Mmm... mmm... mmm..." Chasing the Wind murmured.
He "mmm-ed" for quite a while, but Li Shiyin only made out the first two characters "Dad", and didn't understand anything else he said.
She thought for a moment, then ventured to ask, "Did Master send you?"
"Mm-hmm!" Chasing the Wind hurriedly nodded.
"Hey! Don't shake me!" Li Shiyin was in Chasing the Wind's mouth. When Chasing the Wind nodded, the up and down shaking was very uncomfortable. After Chasing the Wind stopped, Li Shiyin sighed and said, "If you had come out earlier, we could have joined forces to first kill that Xuan Qin Yuan Ying cultivator, then kill those two Wu Jin Sword Sect Yuan Ying cultivators as well."
It was unclear who had influenced whom into developing this habit of pretending.
Upon hearing this, Chasing the Wind rolled his eyes.
Taking advantage of the fact that Chasing the Wind couldn't speak easily, Li Shiyin continued, "It would have been better if you came out later too. I could have killed that Wu Jin Sword Sect guy myself. Sigh... it's all your fault! You didn't come out early or late, but appeared right at the critical moment."
"???" Chasing the Wind's mind was full of question marks, and he started "mmm-ing" again, "If I didn't come out then, you would have been killed!!!"
"But... Master is still amazing..." Li Shiyin ignored his muffled noises and went on, "He knew in advance that I would run into Yuan Ying cultivators and specially sent you to come save me."
"..." Chasing the Wind was speechless. In his heart he thought, "Dad didn't know jack, it was clearly me who saved you!"
But he was magnanimous and didn't quibble with Li Shiyin over it.
Chasing the Wind was a pure white tiger, with only three black markings - the black "King" character on his forehead, the four solid black ring-shaped patterns on his tail, and the pure black gloves on his paws.
The "King" character on his forehead gave him the ability of "Evil Spirit Space", the ring patterns on his tail gave him the ability to split into four dark clones, and the black gloves on his paws gave him the power to control darkness.
His four black paws tread upon the darkness as if it were solid ground, allowing him to dash madly through the air even without riding the wind.
Chasing the Wind had carried Li Shiyin in his mouth for a long time, almost reaching Wuyi City, and could hear the roaring from the battlefield up ahead. Li Shiyin suddenly realized that a peerless Sword Immortal absolutely could not appear in public in this undignified manner.
She spoke up, "Foolish tiger, don't you think there might be a possibility of you putting me down so I can fly myself?"
Oh right! Chasing the Wind also realized: first, Li Shiyin was uninjured; second, those Yuan Ying cultivators hadn't given chase either.
He slammed on the brakes and stopped, spitting Li Shiyin out of his mouth.
Li Shiyin then executed an art in midair, flipped her body with a leap, and landed on Chasing the Wind's back.
"Blech blech blech..." After carrying Li Shiyin all that way with her in his mouth, Chasing the Wind's mouth didn't feel very comfortable.
He discovered that Li Shiyin hadn't flown herself, but had jumped onto his back instead, and his face darkened as he asked, "Didn't you say you were going to fly yourself?"
"Humph! This Sword Immortal has bestowed upon you the honor of being my steed!" Li Shiyin haughtily replied. She realized her clothes had been soaked by Chasing the Wind's drool and came up with another justification, "Your drool got my clothes all wet and filthy, it reeks! You owe me compensation. So you have to be my mount."
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have saved you, I should have let you get hacked to death there by those Yuan Ying sword cultivators!" Chasing the Wind conceded helplessly.
In the end, it was still Chasing the Wind treading on the darkness carrying Li Shiyin as he ran back to Wuyi City, although his method had changed from holding her in his mouth to giving her a ride on his back.
The siege was still continuing, and had not halted due to the absence of the aloof cultivators.
As Chasing the Wind and Li Shiyin drew closer to Wuyi City, the din from the battlefield grew louder and louder.
The pungent, bloody smell of blood was carried over by the cold wind...
Li Shiyin looked down at the ground from midair and saw the black mass of Xuanqin troops surging forward below.
This gave her a sense of shock - when gathered together, even weak commoners could erupt with unbelievable power.
But it also gave her a sense of sadness, because she felt that the soldiers swarming forward below seemed to have lost their souls, becoming like beasts that only knew how to slaughter mindlessly. They moved forward helplessly, pushed from behind by the men behind them, pushed forward by invisible hands...
"They don't actually want to fight this war themselves..." she murmured, suddenly enlightened. "The one who wants to wage war is the Xuanqin Emperor."
The closer they drew to Wuyi City, the louder the sounds of slaughter grew. When the vague shapes of the walls of Wuyi City could be seen up ahead, Li Shiyin noticed something was off.
There were too many people on the city towers, and most were Xuanqin's black armored troops, with very few of North Chu's red armored troops. She cried out in alarm, "Has the city already been breached?!"
Chasing the Wind looked ahead - the walls were intact, where had any breach occurred? He replied, "No!"
"Go faster!" Li Shiyin urged anxiously.
Chasing the Wind could only speed up, summoning the wind to aid him as well.
Wuyi City had indeed fallen... It should have fallen long ago.
That it had held out until now, aside from the cultivators being killed by Li Shiyin, was firstly due to Li Zhan's determination to defend the city - the city stands while its people stand, the city perishes when its people perish; secondly, it had to be said, Li Shiwen possessed the valor of ten thousand men, and had stood at the most dangerous spot on the city walls from the very start, beating back every invading enemy. This had eased the pressure on the other city defenders, and also inspired morale to defend the city.
But...
Humans have limits.
No matter how resolute the city defenders were, when faced with the endless tide of Xuanqin troops, their will was prone to collapse. As valiant as Li Shiwen was, he was still just one man. Moreover, cultivators were not so easy to kill... What he had left was his final burst of strength.
Not long after Li Shiyin had chased after Qing Yuan, Li Shiwen could no longer hold on... and the city had also fallen.
By persisting until now, Li Shiwen had already suffered over ten injuries, and was barely supporting himself through sheer willpower.
Most of the defending troops had already retreated into the city. Li Shiwen had remained behind to cover the retreat.
He stood at a critical juncture, drenched in blood, his armor in tatters. With spear and blade, he held off hundreds of Xuanqin soldiers.
The Xuanqin soldiers were filled with dread, and looked left and right. Someone said, "He's already at the end of his rope, there's no need to engage him further - he will topple over himself!"
"I..." Li Shiwen wanted to say he wouldn't fall, but all that came out when he opened his mouth was blood, so he said no more.
The two sides were at an impasse, one man versus hundreds, staring each other down. The Xuanqin men were waiting for Li Shiwen to topple over, while Li Shiwen... truly had no more strength to move.
The Xuanqin troops did not get to witness Li Shiwen's collapse. What came instead was an insect with a white forehead!
"A tiger... what a huge tiger!" There was initially an uproar among the crowd when someone shouted this.
Right after, a wild gust blew in, and someone yelled in terror, "A monstrous tiger is flying over!"
"A monster!!!"
Li Shiwen's consciousness was already blurred. He stood there motionless, hearing the Xuanqin soldiers' frightened cries, and vaguely seeing an enormous tiger over ten meters tall summon a fierce gale as it landed on the city wall. With swipes of its left and right paws, along with the wind, it blew all the Xuanqin troops on the wall down below the city.
"Big brother?" He seemed to hear someone calling him - it was probably his little sister.
He felt Li Shiyin stuffing things into his mouth...
He felt Li Shiyin pick him up...
He felt...he couldn't feel anything anymore...